What Active D-Lighting Settings Do You Use and Why?

[David H. Hartman]

Active D-Lighting can be set in camera and changed in post processing if one is shooting NEF (RAW). I have Active D-Lighting set at low in camera and wonder what others are doing and why?

Best,

Dave

[pluton]

Since I shoot raw and don't normally shoot JPEG or use NX Studio for processing, ADL doesn't figure into my stills shooting. It may prove very useful for video, however.  I did a few tests and, when turned up to high or extra high, it really seemed to help hold shadow detail on bright, contrasty direct sunlight days.

[golunvolo]

I usually shot in "neutral" profile in camera with anything else off by default, for better exposure guide and go from there. I don't want the camera to slow down or do any adjustments that I can control later. My other way of shooting is setting the camera into a personal contrasty monochrome as it changes significantly the way I see and shoot. Again, settings as D-lighting, ect... are off as default.

[ColinM]

I never use Active D in camera. I shoot RAW
I sometimes use Active D in NX Studio in pp, but only when I really need it

I'd find NX Control Points more useful as a way of adjusting different parts of picture than the way Active D can work across the whole image.

[David H. Hartman]

From a YouTube video it was asserted with samples that Active D-Light Off and Low are virtually identical. I don't shoot JPG(s) in camera only NEF so I don't need Active D-Lighting in camera for stills.

It seems Active D-Lighting may be important to video where I shoot basically home videos that won't be post processed.

Thanks for all the replies.

Dave

[Ilkka Nissilä]

From a YouTube video it was asserted with samples that Active D-Light Off and Low are virtually identical. I don't shoot JPG(s) in camera only NEF so I don't need Active D-Lighting in camera for stills.

It seems Active D-Lighting may be important to video where I shoot basically home videos that won't be post processed.

Thanks for all the replies.

Dave

I find ADL very useful when videographing people moving across locations with completely uncontrolled lighting conditions, it opens up faces against backgrounds that may be brighter in a non-tone-mapped representation. It works quite well for making scene contrast lower yet keeping the subject well defined. I use it typically in NORMAL setting.

In stills I sometimes apply DL of some sort in post-processing, e.g., when photographing trees against the sun in the backgroud it works well and mitigates the excessive contrast in the scene. However, I only use it for specific situations. There are other algorithms and methods for this but sometimes Nikon's algorithm works really well and is the easiest path forward.

[Frank Fremerey]

OFF! And use till it pleases me in POST

[Ilkka Nissilä]

BTW what the ADL does is (1) apply a slight negative exposure compensation to ensure some highlight info is recorded in high-contrast situations, (2) apply Nikon's D-Lighting tone-mapping algorithm which is kind of similar to single-image HDR. The 2nd step only applies to JPG image and the JPG preview image of the NEF file, but the first steps applies whenever the exposure triangle has at least one automatic component to it. The first point was originally the only difference between ADL and DL, to my knowledge, but this may have changed in 20 years.

However, D-Lighting and Advanced D-Lighting in NX Studio seem to apply different algorithms or at least the results are not that similar to each other, the settings options are different, though both try to solve similar problems.